Volvo to test 100 self-driving cars on public roads in Sweden

Autonomous vehicles are clearly the future of driving. Google has been testing their self-driving cars for some time on public streets and Nissan plans to have them in production by 2020.

Volvo is now preparing to test its own self-driving cars on the public streets in Sweden.

The large-scale autonomous driving pilot project will have 100 self-driving Volvo cars use public roads in everyday driving conditions around the Swedish city of Gothenburg.

The project called ‘Drive Me – Self-driving cars for sustainable mobility’ is a joint initiative between Volvo Car Group, the Swedish Transport Administration, the Swedish Transport Agency, Lindholmen Science Park and the City of Gothenburg.

The pilot project will involve self-driving cars using approximately 50 kilometres of selected roads in and around Gothenburg with focus on a number of areas, such as:
-How autonomous vehicles bring societal and economic benefits by improving traffic efficiency, the traffic environment and road safety
-Infrastructure requirements for autonomous driving
-Typical traffic situations suitable for autonomous vehicles
-Customers’ confidence in autonomous vehicles
-How surrounding drivers interact smoothly with a self-driving car

The project is still in early stages and will commence in 2014 with customer research and technology development with first cars expected to be on the roads in Gothenburg by 2017.